GDBFrontend | Easy, Flexible & Extensionable GUI Debugger

Tools & Scripts
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GDBFrontend is an easy, flexible and extensionable gui debugger.

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Installing

Deb Package (Debian / Ubuntu / KDE Neon)

You can install GDBFrontend via deb package for Debian-based distributions.

You can install it from following commands:

echo “deb [trusted=yes] https://oguzhaneroglu.com/deb/ ./” | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list > /dev/null sudo apt update sudo apt install gdbfrontend

After installing with APT, you will get updates for new releases on APT upgrade.

You can get upgrades with following commands:

sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade gdbfrontend

and you can run it:

gdbfrontend

Running From GIT

You can download latest source and run it.

Requirements

  • GDB => 8.2 (with python3)
  • python3
  • tmux

You can run gdb-frontend with following commands:

git clone https://github.com/rohanrhu/gdb-frontend.git gdb-frontend cd gdb-frontend ./gdbfrontend

and you can open it with:

http://127.0.0.1:5551/terminal/

or without terminal:

http://127.0.0.1:5551/

You can open GDB shell with the command:

tmux a -t gdb-frontend

Flatpak

Flatpak package is a TODO.

./gdbfrontend

$ gdbfrontend --help
GDBFrontend is a easy, flexible and extensionable gui debugger.

Options:
  --help, -h:                           Shows this help message.
  --version, -v:                        Shows version.
  --gdb-executable=PATH, -g PATH:       Specifies GDB executable path (Default is "gdb" command on PATH environment variable.)
  --tmux-executable=PATH, -tmux PATH:   Specifies Tmux executable path (Default is "tmux" command on PATH environment variable.)
  --terminal-id=NAME, -t NAME:          Specifies tmux terminal identifier name (Default is "gdb-frontend".)
  --host=IP, -H IP:                     Specifies current host address that you can access via for HTTP and WS servers.
  --listen=IP, -l IP:                   Specifies listen address for HTTP and WS servers.
  --port=PORT, -p PORT:                 Specifies port range for three ports to (Gotty: PORT, HTTP: PORT+1, WS: PORT+2 or 0 for random ports).
  --http-port=PORT:                     Specifies HTTP server port.
  --server-port=PORT:                   Specifies WS server port.
  --gotty-port=PORT:                    Specifies Gotty server port.
  --readonly, -r:                       Makes code editor readonly. (Notice: This option is not related to security.)
  --workdir, -w:                        Specifies working directory.
  --plugin-dir, -P:                     Specifies plugins directory.
  --verbose, -V:                        Enables verbose output.

Options

--help , -h

Shows help text.

--version , -v

Shows version.

--gdb-executable=PATH , -g PATH

You can specify GDB executable path like gdbfrontend --gdb-executable=/path/to/gdb . (Optional)

--tmux-executable=PATH , -tmux PATH

You can specify Tmux executable path like gdbfrontend --tmux-executable=/path/to/tmux . (Optional)

--terminal-id=PATH , -t PATH

You can specify Tmux terminal id like gdbfrontend --terminal-id=terminal-name . (Default: gdb-frontend )

--host=IP , -H IP

Specifies current host address that you can access via for HTTP and WS servers.

--listen=IP , -l IP

Specifies listen address for HTTP and WS servers.

--port=PORT , -p PORT

Specifies port range for three ports to (Gotty: PORT, HTTP: PORT+1, WS: PORT+2 or 0 for random ports).

--http-port=PORT

Specifies HTTP server port.

--server-port=PORT

Specifies WS server port.

--gotty-port=PORT

Specifies Gotty server port.

--readonly, -r

Makes code editor readonly. (Notice: This option is not related to security.)

--workdir, -w

Specifies working directory.

--plugin-dir, -P

Specifies plugins directory.

--verbose , -V

Enables verbose output.

Troubleshooting

Zombie Processes

Sometimes GDB and gdb-frontend may not be closed correctly. In this case, you can terminate gdb-frontend shell.

tmux kill-session -t gdb-frontend

GDB-Related Issues and Tips

  • GDB does not give sources of linked object until stepping a line that calls a function from the linked object once . You can add break point a line and step it once, then you will see sources from linked object hereafter during the session.

Windows

In fact, gdb-frontend is able to run on Windows but there are some serious issues in the GDB’s Windows version those avoid using gdb-frontend on Windows. Of course you can use gdb-frontend on WSL if you are using Windows 10.

Issues about Windows-GDB

  • GDB’s main-thread is being blocked during running process. (gdb-frontend has an interrupting mechanism to fixing this but it is not enough yet.)
  • Windows-GDB’s prompt is being blocked during running process and there are some issues about interrupting the application.
  • Current release of Windows-GDB contains Python2. New GDB 9 have Python3 but it is not released yet.

WSL

You can use gdb-frontend on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux).

Issues about WSL

  • Random port option is not usable on WSL becasue /proc/net/tcp interface is not working on WSL.

Documentation

Documentation is TODO yet.

API Documentation

API Documentation is TODO yet.

Plugin Development

You can read the Plugin Development Tutorial.

GitHub:

3 Likes
2

Looks cool. Should give it a try,